Greyed out early:
Josiah Gray hit a single and double in the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park last week, but the 25-year-old starter pitched cleanly in the third inning after giving up early. However, it only ran into trouble. In the bottom of the fifth in Philadelphia, Kyle Schwarber walked with one out, and from two outs Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer with a 2-2 cutter over the middle of the plate in the zone. The former Knots outfielder hit a 397-foot two-run homer to right-center. A single hit in the ensuing at-bat ended Gray’s run as he pitched 92 for four. 2⁄3 IP.
“It’s definitely been a struggle to get through,” Gray said of the trip as a whole. Quoted by MASN’s Bobby Blanco.
“We had some good stuff, but we needed to get it done. We have some good hitters.
“There was just one bad throw to Harper. If we can get that back, it might be a slightly different outing.”
The home run was the 16th the Nationals’ 25-year-old starter has allowed this season.1.14HR/9inch 126 2⁄3 IP), one year after leading the majors by allowing 38 HRs in 148 games. 2⁄3 IP (2.30HR/9).
Last night in Washington, DC, in the series opener against the Boston Red Sox, Gray hit his 17th home run he allowed this year on the fourth pitch. Alex Verdugo hit a one-two slider into the 405-foot zone right-center 2 hits to score the leadoff and retake the early lead from the Nationals starter.
lead off single (by Red Sox catcher Reese Maguire)), a pair of two-out walks (fFirst to Rafael Devers, then to Trevor Story), and a two-run single (to Triston Casas) on a short-distance 3-2 cutter extended the visitors’ lead to 3-0, but the home side rallied to take the lead behind it. robbed. 3rd inning, 2-run double (by Keibert Lewis, then Stone Garrett), 4-3.
Gray returned to the mound in the 4th inning, but dropped out with a single and double, no outs, and runners on second and third. A sack fly/double play put one of the two runners left by the starting pitcher on base, and Robert Garcia’s wild pitch allowed Lewis to get away, allowing the Grays to score the final fifth to make it 5-4. . Red Sox win.
Josiah Gray quotes: 3.0 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 Ks, 1 HR, 83 P, 50 S, 1/1 GO/FO.
Davey Martinez’s bullpen kept the club scoreless six times after Gray’s shortened start, but the Nationals have scored only three times when they scored four and have runners in scoring position. In the state, 2 hits in 11 at bats, and 5 points left. I lost and went to the base.
“We’re back. We stored it there for a while. We couldn’t have scored more,” he said after the game.
What about Gray’s recent struggles?
“I still don’t have control over the fastball, and I’m trying to rely on too many assist balls,” Martinez said.
Gray threw 29% of curveballs (Up from a season average of 15.7%), throwing a sinker 22% of the time (Up from 12.2%), mixed with 20% cutter (Up from 17.7%), 13% Four Seamer (Decreased from 20.3%), and essentially put away the slider (8%), sweeper (4%) and changeup (4%), but he typically threw a slider 27.2% of the year.
“He’s behind and just loses the plate there,” continued Martinez.
“So we had to make him understand that he’s gotten a lot better with his fastball.
“When he was really good, he could throw a fastball, get a strike, run it for a while, and then go for a second pitch. But his pitches are up there.”
Gray played 31 of 83 pitches in the first inning, and the Red Sox fouled 21 of them to increase the count and knock him out early.
“[Thirty-one] Throw the first time,” said Gray, Quoted by Mark Zuckerman of MASNafter the game.
“I knew this probably wasn’t going to be the longest of my outings. I was trying to get through it, I was trying to give the team some length. But, When I first got out of there, I knew I had to work hard to get the out.”
“He’s just relying too much on doubles. He’s got to get into offensive mode again,” Gray’s manager summed up his assessment of Gray’s recent start.
“Sometimes he needs to go out and put everything aside and just hit hitters and just hit the zone.
“His stuff is great,” Martinez added. “His stuff is really good. We haven’t gotten this far, especially this year with the All-Stars and everything is not good, so I have a bit of a problem with the coaching right now, but I know he can turn things around. But he has to believe in his fastball and start using it more and throw it over the plate.”
Harvey is back:
Hunter Harvey finished 39 games with a 3.12 ERA, 3.62 FIP, 45 walks, 45 Ks, and a .196/.258/.336 batting average before suffering a 15-day stretch in his right elbow on July 17. Participated in IL. and 40 1⁄3 At IP, he made nine saves in 14 chances. Harvey started pitching again shortly after going to IL, and on the weekend he started pitching to hitters again. The Nationals liked it, and when they decided he was ready to go, they quickly sent him back to the majors (the club won the game). ).
“He was 97-99 throwing strikes the other day,” manager Davey Martinez said of Harvey’s throw.
“My biggest concern was just making sure his mechanics were good and he was fine.”
The sixth-year captain further explained what the club had in mind for the mechanics when Harvey threw in front of the team’s players last weekend.
“I’m just standing up,” Martinez explained. “I’m not in a hurry. And when I go up to the last five or six pitches, I watch my heart rate to see if he’s picked up a little speed, which shows he’s really tired. But He was fine, and like I said earlier, he could probably throw 25 pitches if he needed to today.”
While Harvey was shutting out games with Kyle Finnegan as set-up man for most of his pre-injury run, Martinez gradually brought back his hard-throwing right-hander (Harvey) as Finnegan continued to shut out games. Said he was going to. now.
“For now, Finnegan will finish the game for us.
Since returning to the closer role in Harvey’s absence, Finnegan has been right out with an 11-RBI streak. 2⁄3 He went scoreless last night, walking 1, striking out 14, keeping opposing hitters on the .108/.128/.108 line and saving 7 of 7 chances to stabilize his bullpen back end. Ta.
“He’s aiming for the strike zone,” Martinez said of Finnegan’s recent success.
“It’s really, really attacking. He works hard on the second pitch and puts it into strikes. That’s great.”
Harvey came out last night in the top of the ninth inning when the Red Sox were leading 5-4, and turned the team around on 13 pitches and 10 strikes.
“I wanted to get him there,” Martinez said of his decision to get Harvey back on the scene immediately. “We were on the back foot, but we wanted to make sure he got in there in the late game like that, and in a situation of high leverage, and he was totally fine.”
